This essay accuses the Asahi Shimbun of operating as though bringing down the Abe administration were its institutional creed, drawing on the Twitter posts of Hiroshi Samejima, a senior figure in its special investigative division.
Using the Moritomo coverage, demands to summon Akie Abe, and anti-nuclear reporting as key examples, it harshly questions the postwar pathology of Japan in which the boundary between journalism and political activism has collapsed.

2019-07-12
This is an article that also convinced me that if the totalitarian states of China and the Korean Peninsula collapse and their records of covert operations are brought to light, it will also become clear that there are countless agents of theirs within the Asahi Shimbun and similar organizations.
The following is a chapter I published on 2018/5/2.
What follows is from the feature titled “The Dubiousness of the Theory of Abe as the ‘Villain,’” carried in the monthly magazine Sound Argument that went on sale yesterday.
As readers know, I stopped subscribing to the Asahi Shimbun, and so I knew nothing at all that the paper had been running articles like the following one after another.
Readers also know that my assessments of individuals, made intuitively from their physiognomy, manner of speech, and conduct, have been almost 100 percent accurate, with the recent example of Niigata Governor Yoneyama standing as a representative case.
As for the face of Hiroshi Samejima, whom I first learned of through this article and who serves as deputy head of the Special Investigative Division, if Japan had a CIA or FBI and I were its director, I would without question investigate whether or not this man had contact with operatives from the Korean Peninsula or China.
To me, this was an article that gave the same shock I felt long ago, when I was still watching Hōdō Station on TV Asahi and Furutachi gleefully brought on someone by saying, “Mr. Ri Chisŏng, deputy head of the foreign news division…”
At the same time, this is an article that convinced me that if the totalitarian states of China and the Korean Peninsula collapse and their records of covert operations are revealed, it will become clear that there are countless agents of theirs inside organizations such as the Asahi Shimbun.
The emphasis in the text, aside from the headline, is mine.
Exposing the Twitter of an Asahi Shimbun Reporter Seeking to Bring Down the Cabinet.
Mizuho Ishikawa, Guest Editorial Writer, Sankei Shimbun.
A String of Words Like Curses.
When I saw the Twitter posts of the Asahi Shimbun reporter sent by the Sound Argument editorial department, I was stunned.
Both I, seeing them for the first time, and readers seeing them for the first time, must surely have been stunned.
There, in violent language, were written one after another contents that seemed to curse the Abe administration.
The author was Mr. Hiroshi Samejima, deputy head of the Special Investigative Division, who unearthed issues such as slapdash decontamination surrounding the nuclear accident and received the Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association Award for the serialized feature “The Prometheus Trap.”
Who can say that this anti-nuclear reporting itself was not reporting exactly in line with the intentions of China and the Korean Peninsula, both of which wish to annihilate Japan’s nuclear technology? To begin with, this very series also contained fabricated reporting on the Yoshida testimony. It is by now also a well-known fact that prizes such as the Newspaper Association Award are self-congratulatory awards in which the Asahi Shimbun exercises great influence.
Twitter is not a printed article set in type on the newspaper page, but as something sent out by an editorial executive occupying a responsible position in the Asahi Shimbun, it cannot be overlooked.
Mr. Samejima’s Twitter laid bare the Asahi Shimbun’s nature of making Abe-bashing a kind of “company creed.”
It is a well-known fact that on March 2, Asahi first reported the falsification of documents by the Ministry of Finance over the Moritomo issue, and that it became a major issue in the Diet.
In a tweet immediately after that, Mr. Samejima wrote as follows.
“At this point, we have no choice but to suspect that everything the Abe administration makes public is a falsified document.” (March 2)
“There is no end to the reasons for the total resignation of the cabinet. Preferential treatment for friends, false answers in the Diet, rape cover-ups, incitement of hate, data falsification… to this day numerous suspicions have been covered over. There has been no administration that has privatized power and deviated from the principles politics is supposed to protect to such an extent. The final result of that is the suspicion of falsification of official documents by the Ministry of Finance.” (March 4)
I do not know what “rape cover-up” and “incitement of hate” refer to, but one can already read from this that he was hinting at a total cabinet resignation and hoping for the administration’s downfall.
In a March 7 tweet he wrote, “I do not think well of people who rose in rank under the Abe administration. They probably merely flattered power and lied. I do not think badly of people arrested by prosecutors under the Abe administration. They probably merely protested the abuse of power and were targeted for it. From now on, notes saying ‘under the Abe administration’ are essential for both public career records and criminal records.”
Does “people arrested by prosecutors” refer to former Moritomo Gakuen chairman Tatsuike Yasunori, who was indicted and detained on charges including fraud?
In his tweets after the contents of the pre-falsification documents became clear, he persistently argued that Akie, the prime minister’s wife, should be called for sworn testimony.
“When the ruling party delivers the final blow to Prime Minister Abe, it will say, ‘We cannot avoid summoning Mrs. Akie for sworn testimony.’ Only then will the prime minister finally resign himself. The best move to force Abe’s resignation is to raise public opinion demanding Mrs. Akie’s sworn testimony. Overseas media are also reporting ‘suspicions surrounding the Abe couple.’ Mrs. Akie is precisely the symbol of Abe-style crony politics.” (March 12)
“No matter how much you attack bureaucrats, Prime Minister Abe will shift responsibility downward, cut off the tail, and escape. But there is only one person whom Prime Minister Abe cannot blame on someone else. That is Mrs. Akie. To force a total cabinet resignation, there is no choice but to attack that point. Sworn testimony.” (March 14)
This is in step with Asahi editorials that have repeatedly demanded Akie’s appearance before the Diet since last year.
His March 16 tweet wrote, “The indispensable question in the weekend opinion poll is, ‘Do you believe Prime Minister Abe when he says, “My wife was not involved”?’ If ‘do not believe’ is a majority, he should resign immediately. A prime minister thought by a majority of the people to be a liar is impossible.”
In fact, in the opinion poll it conducted on March 17 and 18, Asahi asked exactly the same question, and 72 percent said they “could not accept” the prime minister’s answer, while 65 percent said “Mrs. Akie needs to explain herself in the Diet.”
Mr. Samejima’s Twitter reveals Asahi’s hand.
To be continued.